Sheriff Lange heaved a hearty sigh, bowing her head and thrusting her thumbs through her belt loops as she drifted behind the Mayor. Leaving a landship to languish in the wasteland—one with a friend onboard, no less—it just didn’t sit right with her. But the Mayor had made his choice, and according to town law she had no further say in it.

  Placing a heavy hand on the doorway of the Wolfram Avalanche, Lange paused. She took a moment to pray for the safety of the small, red landship idling at the gates before ducking inside.

  “Unbound!!” Just then, a mannerly voice cried out through the Redland Runner’s speaker. Its warning reverberated across the valley walls, settling over the town like a dark cloud.

  Lange stiffened like a board. She swirled around and flung herself to the edge of the deck, peering out into the desert. Sure enough, a dark shape was approaching, hulking and huge and coming in fast. The Mayor jogged up beside her, dots of nervous sweat beading at his brow.

  “Ezsarr,” he cursed, looking grim-faced at the mouth of the mesa. “Not now…”

  Distending her spyglass, Lange hurriedly scoped out at the writhing mass in the distance. It was a lopsided, elephantine thing, a dozen meters long, at least. A quintet of clawing arms sprouted from its misshapen body, which was dripping with thick globs of fat and propped up by a set of broad, tree trunk legs. Lifting its reptilian head into the air, the unsightly chimera of flesh and flora split open its mandibles and trumpeted a predatory screech.

  “Sound the alarm!” shouted Lange towards a nearby sentry. Jumping to action, the man yanked down on a thick handle affixed to the bulkhead. A deep, pulsating siren cried out into the air. The two ships of the town gate instantly buzzed with energy as a dozen readied guards threw themselves at their stations, manning the network of cannons. The guns lurched to life, taking aim at the creature heading straight for them.

  “You must let us inside!” cried the voice from the Redland Runner. “Please!”

  The Mayor scooped up the nearby radio receiver and toggled the dial on its face. “Prepare to fire,” he soberly announced into the mic.

  “Genzo!” gasped Lange. “We can’t shoot! The Expo ship, they’re in the way.”

  “We will have to risk it,” said the Mayor. “We must keep tse town safe, at any cost.”

  “No, Genzo. No,” Lange asserted, sticking a stern finger between the Mayor’s eyes. “This ain’t right, and you know it. We gotta let ‘em in.”

  The Mayor stewed, deep lines of conflict etched upon his stony face. “…Dah!” he finally snapped before raising the receiver to his lips. “Open tse doors!” he ordered into the mic.

  The Mayor’s decree bounced throughout the two ships, falling on the ears of the drivers. Moments later, the pair of warships heaved. Their rusted chassis squealed and groaned, their wheels shaking themselves of dirt. Steadily, the ships reversed into a set of tunnels built into the mesa walls, a narrow gap gradually opening between their bows.

  “They are opening the gates!” shouted Sheah as she threw the radio receiver back into its cradle. “We are saved!”

  “Not yet,” said Kaelis, propelling herself into the bridge. She rummaged frantically through the storage bin and pulled out her rifle. “It’s comin’ at us too fast. By the time they open up we’ll be torn to shreds.”

  “Oh,” Sheah squeaked, bouncing her eyes between the slowly creeping gates and the snarling Unbound growing ever closer. She began to jitter with fear. “W—we must angle the ship around, fire upon it with the cannon!”

  Jira shook her head grimly. “No space.”

  “But we must slow it down somehow!”

  “We will,” said Kaelis. She confidently crammed a round into her rifle. “Captain, grab me a cannon shell. I got an idea.”

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  Jira nodded firmly, an impish glint in her eye—she and Kaelis were on the same page. She jogged out of the bridge, throwing a command to Sheah on the way out. “Man the helm. Take us in.”

  “Uh, yes, Captain,” Sheah sheepishly acknowledged. She hopped into the driver’s seat and quickly ran herself through the drove of dials and meters for the dozenth time. “‘Tis only a straight line. I can do this…” she muttered to herself nervously, clutching her hands on the wheel.

  Jira jumped down the stairs in a single bound and sprinted over to the cannon. She threw open the box beside it and collected a single artillery shell. Cradling the cartridge in her arm, she turned on her toes and rushed back to the stern in record time.

  Kaelis crouched low, laying the end of her gun atop the aft railing. She aimed down the gun sights at the Unbound's mammoth legs, their mighty weight quaking the earth with every wayward step. The beast passed between the arms of the mesa, its thorny teeth mere moments away from devouring the Redland Runner and its crew.

  “Captain, let it fly!” Kaelis exclaimed as Jira rushed up behind her.

  Propping the shell in her arm, Jira took a low stance and built up her strength. Like a bullet from a gun, she leapt forward and rocketed the shell from her arms, hurtling it off the stern. It careened through the air before planting its nose straight into the soft earth a few meters ahead of the encroaching beast.

  Kaelis squeezed one eye and aimed carefully at the cartridge. She drew in a steadying breath, lining up her shot, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

  The Unbound crashed its front foot down just next to the shell. Kaelis squeezed the trigger.

  Crack!

  The shot burst from her rifle. It collided with the broadside of the cartridge, the bullet panging impotently against the metal.

  “Shit—” cursed Kaelis, ejecting the spent casing from her gun. The Unbound lifted its foot, leaving the artillery shell behind it.

  “Hit the primer,” said Jira with a tinge of alarm.

  “I got it, I got it, I got it—” Kaelis adjusted her aim by mere millimeters.

  Sheah hunched over in the driver’s seat, biting her lip, watching the gates inch open like they had nothing better to do. They still weren’t nearly wide enough. Turning around in her seat, her face drained of its color as the mangled head of the Unbound filled the middle distance.

  “Ah! Kaelis! Hurry!” she reflexively cried.

  Kaelis tuned out Sheah’s distracting shouts. The Unbound lumbered forward, its rear foot sinking into the earth beside the shell. It loosened its jaw and lurched towards the back of the Redland Runner, ready to consume it in a single gulp like a gruesome whale. Kaelis drew in a deep breath, ignoring the horrifying sights and smells of the beast, letting the world slow around her. She aimed quickly and carefully. This was their last chance. She pulled the trigger.

  Crack!

  BLAM!

  The bullet struck the primer at the base of the cartridge. In a flash, the shell detonated into a fountain of fiery shrapnel, consuming the Unbound’s rear leg just below the knee. The beast’s limb erupted into a grisly display of carnage, flinging wet chunks of wood and flesh out into the air. The Unbound shrieked horrifically as its rear leg buckled. Thrown off balance, it crashed to the ground, rocking the earth with the impact.

  Sheah was too frazzled to smile. She whipped her head back towards the makeshift gates, the gap finally just wide enough for the Redland Runner to squeeze through. Throwing the ship into drive, Sheah steadily wormed her way through the opening, feathering the brake, delicately adjusting the wheel. She crept the ship safely into the town, barely keeping its tires from scraping against the warships’ bows.

  Lange grinned widely from the warship’s deck, looking down at the immobilized Unbound and the small expeditioner vessel squeezing its way through the gates. She threw a quick, gleeful glance at the Mayor. He nodded back at her, only partially pleased.

  The Unbound began to stir. It uttered a shrill groan as it heaved its arms onto the ground. Lurching itself upright, it snarled furiously before resuming its attack, shuffling towards the opened gates.

  The Redland Runner rang its horn, signaling that it was safely inside the village. Lange put on a serious face and lifted the radio receiver to her lips.

  “We’re clear! Let loose!”

  On her signal, the two warships opened fire with every available cannon. The Unbound screamed as artillery poured into it, each explosive shell ripping thick, bloodied hunks from its mass. Lange took cover as gobs of viscera smacked against the ship and walls of the mesa, painting them in gore. After the final gun had fired, the creature collapsed to the ground, reduced to a stack of sinew and splinters.

  Lange removed herself from cover and approached the edge of the deck. She stared down at the beast, her brow raised, unconvinced of its defeat. Sure enough, the Unbound writhed, still alive as it lay in a mound of its own pieces. It lifted a single, defiant arm, trembling weakly. Wrapping its gnarled fingers around the dirt, it continued its assault, dragging itself towards the gate and rattling with rancor.

  Lange gave the final order. One last blast rang out. The shot dug itself into the Unbound’s center of mass, blowing it to pieces. Its heart, the source of its enduring life, flopped onto the ground, shredded and unbeating, exposed to the open air. Lange breathed out a slight smile, satisfied with another fine performance from the brave men and women of the village. As the gates crawled back to a close, she moved past the Mayor and made for the sequence of ladders attached to the back hull of the ship. Excitedly, she slid down to the streets below, raring to give her old friend a proper greeting.